Why video game movies will never, ever work

After years of terrible video game-to-movie adaptations, it seems video games just don’t transfer over to the big screen.

Video games are the new black, and they have been for a while. It’s cool to be a nerdy shut-in, living out the increasingly violent lives of virtual characters. It’s the best-selling form of media today, and with the seemingly endless commercial success of Call of Duty and co, the stream of money isn’t likely to end any time soon. But gaming still has a stigma attached. A pointless hobby, some would say, a waste of money and a waste of time (for those people, you think we don’t know that? Stop pretending you’re not in love, and get yourself a console). So to please the fanboys and girls, and draw in the haters, there are the film adaptations.

Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy; future generations will assume the reanimated corpse of Ed Wood was the director

Forever on the horizon is the promise of a new video game movie, adapted from one successful game or another. The floodgates open, and out comes the waterfall of rumours about everything from the main star, all the way down to which game in the franchise they will choose to adapt. “Will it be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or Modern Warfare 2?” OK, that would be the same film. Not a good example. But it happens, and hordes of fans get their freak on for something that’s either never going to happen, or, as we’ve come to expect, is terrible. You pay for the DVD, you sit back, and you die a little inside.

Of course then, these films scare the non-gamers away. They scuttle back to books and music and things social people enjoy. But wait, (fill in blank) is coming out soon, and the game is brilliant! Come back, watch it with us! It’s not happening. Ever. To the nerds and the obsessives like me, take a moment to absorb that. The evidence is there to see. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy. Future generations will only assume they used the same director: the reanimated corpse of Ed Wood, drooling about and pointing at what he thinks might be Kylie Minogue or Christopher Lambert.

Move on into the 00s and you have a whole new selection of video game movies. Movies like Tomb Raider, Hitman and Far Cry. Two hours of action-packed, high octane shit, repackaged with modern faces and more violence. Angelina Jolie can’t even save the genre. The only one that’s worth mentioning is Silent Hill, a film that did what Resident Evil tried in vain to do, and turned out to actually be a horror film people should watch. But sequels sprout up and ruin the franchise in one blow, as Silent Hill: Revelation spectacularly did. I don’t know who gave Sean Bean that American accent, but can they please take it back off him?

Now there’s a new generation of video game movies, headed by a Spielberg-directed Halo series and a Fassbendered Assassin’s Creed. Well, I say new generation, when really the likelihood is that the same mistakes will be made, and no matter how much money is thrown at it, the film, TV series, cartoon, they’ll all fall short of critical success.

And on the off chance that Michael Fassbender can work with one shoddy director or another and make something of the Assassin’s Creed movie – so what? A one-off, a spike in the genre that will most likely drop back into obscurity, where the fans can discuss their excited rumours in backwater forums. The genre needs what Christopher Nolan gave the superheroes: something that stays true to its source while bringing something new. Not that I know what that ‘something’ might be. Probably nobody does – video games just don’t transfer well over to the big screen.

The video game movie needs what Christopher Nolan gave the superhero genre: something both new and true to the source

So directors, producers, writers and actors: leave the games alone. They were made to be played on consoles, not for us to watch the action second hand, while various stars complete a campaign on-screen. Games like Bioshock, The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V are proof that video games are just as viable a media platform as TV or cinema. True, they take up a lot more hours of your life, and getting to the end credits can be a spree of angry rants rather than a relaxing night in, but movies and video games are separate entities. Watching a video game film is like watching a film’s video game: it’s like a marriage that should have ended years ago, but nobody wants to be the first to move back in with their parents and take the ring off. And there’s always another disappointing kid on the way.

Can’t believe they’re making a Gran Turismo movie either, the series has never had characters for christ’s sake?!

James Z

Cars are people too 😉
Nissan Skyline for the win !!

Rogerdodger

They are? Holy fuck.

Connor Harrison

It’s the first of a trilogy. They’re doing Scrabble next.

Jordan Forward

I genuinely want that, the tag lines would be wondrous

Connor Harrison

‘Sex, drugs and Scrabble’

Andrew Wood

I like the article. I think it’s more down to poor writing and direction more than anything though. There are some amazing video games that could be made into great movies but the production is nearly always lazy and doesn’t stay particularly true to the source material. If someone passionate took the helm instead of Hollywood’s pick of the runt I reckon it could be done well.

Jordan Forward

YES

Brogan Jameson Morris

I think the point Connor makes about Nolan and the superhero genre is a good one. Before Bryan Singer and Nolan made the superhero movie into something approaching art, the genre wasn’t taken seriously at all (same with Kubrick making sci-fi respectable with 2001). It might only take one game-changing filmmaker to come along and turn the video game movie into something more

James Z

And yet you didn’t like the 3rd Batman film- Shame on you

Brogan Jameson Morris

It’s the only Nolan film I didn’t love. Just so full of gaping flaws…

James Z

Bane is the best bad guy in years.
But yeah a baffling opener when the footsoldier happily chooses to die unexpectedly. “Oh sure!”

Connor Harrison

But that’s because Bane is so terrifying! Ok, maybe I get defensive over The Dark Knight Rises…

Mabans

No they wouldn’t. There fact is there’s that level of interaction and adds to the level of immersion you get. Empathy plays a HUGE role in video games. Mainly because YOU are the person experiencing those things, in the virtual sense. You are Mario, Sonic, Master Chief, Lara, Samus, Snake, Booker DeWitt. We, fans of video games, have to stop wanting to have the story told to us AGAIN and AGAIN just through different mediums if they are going to be told poorly. Sorry I don’t need to have the story of Bioshock infinite or Last of Us told to me through a movie, I experienced those things and based past performance they won’t do it justice, they’ve never done it justice. That’s the hang up. movie studios know this, that’s why they make movies that have very loose string connections to the video game, Resident Evil being a PERFECT example. This isn’t new, they have been trying to make video games movies for decades and still cant’ figure it out..

Connor Harrison

Better directors would be good yeah, but I reckon video game premises are best for playing, rather than watching.

Cinique Lenoir

I agree with you entirely, and I think it has very little to do with the “playing vs. watching” deal.

Practically every video game film I’ve ever seen has been handled poorly. Honestly, I think that trying to be faithful to the source material can be an issue. Sometimes things need to be changed, to work in a realistic manner, because films aren’t as surrealistic as animation, comics, or video games.

Video game fans are probably the biggest threat to video game films, because they’re stuck on the medium.

Basically, a team would have to come along and treat the film as a film they were making from scratch – not like “live action version of ___”, and gamers would have to see it as a film – not as “the book…” umm “game…is always better than the film”.

It can be done, but hardly, if anyone, has really gone at a video game film as a serious film.

Rogerdodger

Some terribad film s out there based on games but looking forward to the Assassin’s Creed film. Interested to see what continuation of the games lore will come out.

James Z

That would be cool

Derek

Awful article filled with hyperbole. If Uwe Boll directed Citizen Kane it would have sucked. If Michael Mann directed “Max Payne” there would be a chance it would have been good. A premise is a premise, no matter what format it originated from.

James Z

Connor, what say you?

Connor Harrison

You might be arguing against yourself here man. A premise is a premise, but it depends on the director? I agree it depends on the choice of the director and the writer, but these films always seem to pull the short straw.

Nathan Bennett

hmm, the reason these films seem crappy is because they apply only to the “fanboy” market and thus begins the downwards spiral of “ALL OF THE REFERENCES” have any of you seen final fantasy 7; Advent children?
if not, go watch that movie (better with no prior knowledge of the games, but we’re here so that’s unlikely)
it’s completely accessible to viewers from outside of the franchise, but most other games, movies just appeal to those inside of the fanboyish cults. and let’s face it, who would watch any superhero movies unless you had to have read the comics to “get it”? only really hardcore fans of comics, but even then you might as well just read comics instead.
tl;dr;
if you want to play a game play a game, if you want to watch a movie, watch a good one, there are plenty.

Dalinkwent

I think his point is a video game adaption can work, but its up to the people adapting said material. Many studios see video games as throw away action and spectacle fodder. They don’t take the medium seriously which results in shit after shit. Mortal Kombat was’t perfect, but its still one of the few video game adaptions that actually captured the essence of the game.

Cjv95

An actual human experience with actual emotions being addressed and characters with actual HUMANITY to them. That’s what game movies need.

Sahvan K

I think that the main reason video game movies don’t work is that we want video game characters transferred onto the screen with actual humanity and actual emotions being addressed. And when we play these games, that humanity comes from us, the player.
We are the one’s truly exposed to the action and emotions, while our character is just a vessel. Now on the big screen we have to watch a character experience what we should be going through and so we miss the control and the direct experience of the action. That is what leaves us unsatisfied.

Frag Ginbey

Yeah, if the passive marries the active there’s going to an arsehole involved somewhere.

If anyone wants something a bit more in depth there’s this wonderful article by a small video games indie co…

The problem with video game adaptions is many of the directors, writers and producers have very limited knowledge of the actual game their adapting. All they usually have is production photos and notes from the company that made the game and little else. Say what you will about the first Mortal Kombat film, but it actually felt like the game and reflected the game in many ways. The director also actually played the game and it shows. Yet this same director only had passing knowledge when it came to Resident Evil and never actually played the game…see how much of a difference it makes?